Born to Stump

  • (2 of 2)

    So if they're not going to preach — and on opening night there were no lapses into sanctimony — how exactly does a group of musicians hope to accomplish its tantalizingly vague goal of change? Voter registration is the old standby response, but Pennsylvania's deadline to register is Oct. 4, three days after Friday's shows; Florida's deadline is also Oct. 4, four days before Vote for Change comes to town. MoveOn.org says it has gained 200,000 new members by linking ticket sales to its website, and organizers expect to raise $10 million to fund Democratic voter-mobilization group America Coming Together, but the truth is that the goals of the tour are abstract. "I don't want to come off as naive," says R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe, "but I put a lot of faith in music. It's an emotional medium. I mean, how could someone fail to be inspired to think about our country after hearing Bruce Springsteen?"

    The opening-night crowd was ready for its hero, and he delivered. "I had a new song I was going to sing to open the show," Springsteen says, "but on the drive down, I decided to go with something else." That something else was an acoustic version of The Star Spangled Banner that segued into an explosive Born in the U.S.A. Springsteen barely paused between songs in his set and traded verses with guest John Fogerty on Fortunate Son and Stipe on Because the Night. As always, he crammed as much American mythology as possible into his vocal cords. "That's our job as artists," he said later. "We're here to sing and be inspired and hopefully inspire other people too." Of course, that's what politics is supposed to do.

    1. 1
    2. 2
    3. Next Page